5.  The applicant was born in 1938 and lives in Novy Tsentoroy, Chechnya.
6.  On 18 January 2002 Ramzan Saidov voluntarily surrendered to the Russian authorities and handed over his weapons. Pursuant to the State Duma decree of 13 December 1999 granting an amnesty for crimes committed by members of armed groups during the counter-terrorist operations in the Northern Caucasus, he was absolved of any crimes and issued with a certificate to that end by the Federal Security service (FSB) office of the Gudermes District.
7.  In 2002 the applicant, her mother and Ramzan Saidov were living at 1/20 Kolkhoznaya Street, in Novy Tsentoroy, Grozny District.
8.  According to the applicant, between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on 10 August 2002 a group of fifteen to twenty men arrived at her house in a UAZ-459 vehicle with the registration number 31-42 CHI. The men were armed with automatic weapons and wore masks and camouflage uniforms. Some of them spoke Russian and others Chechen. They checked the family members’ identity papers and examined the amnesty certificate. Then they locked the applicant and her mother in the house, forced Ramzan Saidov into the car and drove away. The applicant has had no news of her son since that date.
9.  The applicant referred to the following documents in support of her submissions: her eye-witness statement; her complaint to the authorities dated 1 November 2007 containing a description of the events; and the decision to adjourn the investigation dated 21 August 2008, containing a summary of her account of the circumstances of the abduction.
10.  The applicant submitted before the Court that her son had been abducted on 10 August 2002, but she had told the investigative authorities that he had been abducted on 8 October 2002 together with I.S. and A.G. (see below). In her further observations before the Court the applicant insisted that the actual date of her son’s abduction was 10 August 2002 and not 8 October 2002, as the national authorities had erroneously stated.
11.  The Government submitted a copy of the entire criminal file no. 56159 on the abduction of Ramzan Saidov, I.S. and A.G. (1,038 pages). The relevant information may be summarised as follows.
12.  It is not clear when the applicant first reported her son’s abduction. However, on 1 November 2002 the Chechnya prosecutor’s office forwarded the applicant’s complaint to the Grozny district prosecutor’s office for the opening of a criminal investigation. It does not appear that following that the applicant had pursued this investigation.
13.  The applicant in her observations argued that the criminal investigation into her son’s abduction had been initiated in August 2002, but that file no. 56723 had apparently been lost in the archives. She submitted the following documents in support of her submissions.
14.  A letter from the Special Envoy of the Russian President in the Chechen Republic for rights and freedoms (“the Special Envoy”) to the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic, dated 28 October 2002, reads as follows:
“[The Special Envoy] has received the [applicant’s] complaint about the abduction of her son, [Ramzan Saidov], born in 1976, by unknown armed men in camouflage uniforms at 5 p.m. on 10 August 2002.
There has been no news ever since; the search for him has not produced any results.
You are asked to inform us and [the applicant] about the measures taken in order to identify the abductors and establish [Ramzan Saidov’s] whereabouts.”
15.  A certificate issued by the Grozny District department of the interior dated 12 November 2005 reads in the relevant parts as follows:
“[This is] to certify that criminal case no. 56723 has been opened into the kidnapping of [Ramzan Saidov] ... [abducted] on 10 August 2002 ... At present operative search measures are being carried out in order to establish the abducted man’s whereabouts and find the culprits.”
16.  It follows from the case file that on 8 October 2002 the Grozny district prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the abduction of I.S. and A.G., who had lived in the same village as Ramzan Saidov. The case file was assigned no. 56159.
17.  On 15 August 2006 the applicant complained to the NGO Memorial Human Rights Centre (“Memorial”) that at about 12 p.m. on 10 August 2002 her son had been abducted by Russian servicemen.
18.  On 30 January 2007 Memorial forwarded the applicant’s complaint to the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic.
19.  On 5 March 2007 the applicant was questioned by an officer of the department of the interior of the Grozny District. She stated that she did not remember the exact date, but that at about 7.30 a.m. in early October 2002 armed men in camouflage uniforms had burst into their house and taken Ramzan Saidov away. She subsequently learnt that on the same day local residents, I.S. and A.G., had also been abducted.
20.  On 4 April 2007 the district prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the disappearance of Ramzan Saidov under Article 126 § 1 of the Criminal Code (kidnapping). The case file was assigned no. 14021.
21.  On the same date, that case was joined with case no. 56159.
22.  On 26 and 27 March 2007 the investigator questioned the applicant and several other witnesses.
23.  The applicant stated that in early October 2002 armed masked men in camouflage uniforms had arrived at their house and taken her son away. After they left, she went out and learnt that two other residents of the village, I.S. and A.G., had also been taken away.
24.  A.B. stated that she had learnt from the applicant that Ramzan Saidov, who was her spouse’s brother, had been abducted at about 7 a.m. in October 2002. She later found out that on the same day I.S. and A.G. had been also taken away.
25.  The applicant’s neighbours, Z.A. and Ya.U., were questioned. They stated that in October 2002 they had heard cries for help and had seen UAZ and URAL vehicles and a large number of armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms in the yard of the applicant’s house. The servicemen stayed there for about an hour and then drove away. Z.A. and Ya.U. later learnt from the applicant that the servicemen had abducted her son. On the same day I.S. and A.G. had been abducted, but were released two weeks later. However, there was no news about Ramzan Saidov.
26.  A.G. stated that in October 2002 armed masked men in camouflage uniforms had arrived at his house, put a bag over his head and taken him away. He was detained at an unknown place, beaten and questioned about his involvement in illegal armed units. Two weeks later the abductors released him in the vicinity of Novy Tsentoroy. After release, he learnt from local residents that on the day of his abduction I.S. and Ramzan Saidov had also been abducted. I.S. was later released, but there was no news about Ramzan.
27.  I.S. gave similar statements about his abduction, questioning and release.
28.  On 9 April 2007 the investigator again questioned the applicant. She stated that her son had been abducted early in the morning of 8 October 2002. The investigator asked the applicant to explain the contradiction that in her previous complaint to Memorial she had noted that her son had been abducted on 10 August 2002. The applicant replied that it was possible that she had made a mistake and that her son had been abducted on 8 October 2002 on the same day as I.S. and A.G.
29.  On 9 April 2007 the applicant was granted victim status.
30.  In April and May 2007 the investigator forwarded inquiries to various departments of the interior and the FSB informing them that Ramzan Saidov and two others had been kidnapped by armed men in a UAZ car with registration number 31-42 CHI and asking them to provide information on whether special operations had been conducted by their units on that day. The investigator also asked various law-enforcement agencies to inform him whether the abducted men had been detained on their premises. Negative replies were given to those inquiries. The investigator questioned the applicant, her relatives and local residents. Those investigative steps were repeated at certain intervals, and the investigation was suspended and resumed on several occasions.
31.  On 27 September 2007 the investigator examined the applicant’s house. No evidence was collected.
32.  The investigator further attempted to identify the owner of the UAZ car with registration number 31-42 CHI. On 29 November 2007 the traffic police department informed the investigator that no information about the current ownership of the registration number could be provided since the archives dated up to 2000 had been destroyed during the military operations.
33.  At some time in 2008 the applicant lodged a complaint with the Grozny District Court (“the District Court”) under Article 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requesting that the inaction of the prosecutor’s office be declared unlawful and that the latest decision suspending the investigation be quashed. She also claimed non-pecuniary damage.
34.  On 26 September 2008 the district prosecutor’s office resumed the investigation.
35.  On the same date the District Court rejected the applicant’s complaint, holding that it had already been granted by the district prosecutor’s office, that the investigation had been conducted in accordance with the law and that her claim for non-pecuniary damage had been lodged in breach of the procedural rules.
36.  On 19 November 2008 the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic upheld the decision on appeal.
37.  On 16 November 2010 the applicant brought civil proceedings against the Government claiming non-pecuniary damage caused by the inaction of the investigative authorities.
38.  On 18 March 2011 the District Court dismissed the applicant’s claims as unsubstantiated. The court noted that it could not assess the materials of the criminal proceedings instituted into the disappearance, since the investigation was still pending.
39.  On 10 May 2011 the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic upheld the decision on appeal. The court held that the applicant had failed to prove that her son had been abducted by State agents and that the actions or inaction of the investigative authorities had been unlawful.